h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

j'au-æmne: zaps your time? what's that mean?


affy, you have no idea what i'd give to have my guardian blade back - the blade of awe pretty much sucks. if you ever get all the pieces (or you might for all i know) do yourself a favor and don't turn them in. as for armor, the guardian ice dragon armor is the best thing i ever picked up.

my biggest grip (other than how slow the game can be sometimes ) is the inventory management - they should really have a bank or something to store things. the main body armor and weapons are what i continually run out of space for.

i like the game, as silly as it is and even though some of the quests take over an hour to do... still, the reason i most like it is because i can not play it for a few months and still be able to pick right up where i left off. plus the developers are always working at new content and they seem genuinely interested in their community. i do wonder if/how they turn a profit...

[GDZ]

I don't understand the lingua franca of online gaming that y'all have been using. What's this about queuing? What is an instance? How does it benefit you as a player or the guild as a whole?

J'au, we're going to crack a case of champagne and eat cake in your honour tomorrow. What excitement!

We had a power blackout last night, as I was playing Myst. What with the UPS I was able to get off the computer in an orderly manner, but the rest of the house was as black as a crypt, and it was hard to remember which lamps had been on. It took about 10 minutes to assemble matches and a candle.

As there was no moon, I went outside to appreciate the night sky in all its unobstructed glory. No streetlights and, curiously, no traffic at all. It was awesome.

Then I went to bed and 10 minutes later Vinnie was at the door banging to come in. Groping my way across to the door, I thought I had let him in, but apparently Precious used the blackness as cover to dart outside, so startling Vinnie that he did not venture through. Unaware, I closed the door and went back to bed, only to be awakened twice more in the next 45 minutes as the delinquent cats demanded to come in.

And I had just gotten to sleep for the 4th time when the power came back on, with whirrs and thumps from the scanner, the VCR, and one of the printers. On top of that, the phone spoke up and told me to press a button for programming instructions.

So all in all, I slept poorly after that.

queuing is just what it sounds like - getting in line to do (or in this case enter) something. in WoW you join a queue and then go do other stuff. when it is your turn you get a dialogue box asking if you're still interested.

an instance is an instanced dungeon. so unlike the rest of the world, where you compete against other players for quest mobs, treasure chests, etc. you instead enter with a group into a dungeon and have free reign without competition (other than your own group).

Quest mob?

Pedant Department: It's "free rein", a riding term. You drop the reins and let the horse have his head, i.e., relax and walk freely. What with horse transport being outmoded for over a century, I see that "free reign" thing a lot.

quest mob = a mob (monster) you have to kill for a quest

the reason you see it all the time is because reign makes just as much sense

[fg]

[MTG{KEA}(AKA Beldrop the Troll Shaman)]

Is that BtTS, then?

SE, I don't really use my Guardian Blade anymore except for when I have a monster that's got even resistances to every possible element. I mean, it hits for a lot of damage to creatures who are easily injured, but I've got a pretty well-rounded group of spells and weapons that can take about anything.

Maybe it's because I was somehow able to master the Ninja class before moving on to anything else. So far I've mastered every class I've tried (I'm working my way through the basic "Fighter" class now). The last thing you learn as a Ninja is fantastic move that, when done correctly, deals about 300 damage to your enemy regardless of what they're weak against.

So what is it, exactly, that you don't like about the Blade Of Awe? It looked like it did pretty much everything that the Guardian Blade did, plus more.

AQ zaps my time in that I always want just that one more battle...

I don't get the guardian blade. I found the elemental changes vexing. But you can always get in back again for one session in the tower armoury...

I am so nervous I can't think. But my priest says it's difficult to kill a wedding service... I'll think it'll be better tomorrow.

We have fruit and sponge cake There are sugar roses on both.

*the smell of baking wafts from the kitchen as CLI bots emerge from the service lift with a dolly of champgne cases*

12/15 on the quiz. Speaking of plagiarism, funny how there's a 'missing dollar' problem on a British site.

I'm not really a fan of long paraphrases myself. I really balked at Lentilla's suggestion of 'reword every sentence'. What does that prove - that you can use a thesaurus?

Oh, something smells good.

[Lentilla drags a giant Crock-Pot full of black-eyed peas into the room. It looks suitable for a coven of witches. She lifts the lid, and tantalizing aromas of ham and onions fill the room.]

I always say every year that I'm going to make a big pot of black-eyed peas for New Years. After all, it'll give you good luck for the year, and I could use some! Now if I just had a crock-pot... R. broke my old one in a cleaning frenzy, and hasn't replaced it yet!

Speaking of which, wouldn't it be cool if they made a Crock-Pot that looked like a cauldron? I'd buy one.

> What with horse transport being outmoded for over a century, I see that "free reign" thing a lot.

Yeah, that drives me crazy too. I get a lot of instructions from clients saying that I have 'free reign' on creativity. Free to bop people with my scepter? Or free to declare war on other countries because I'm short of gold and spices?

So when are we breaking out the champagne? [Wiggles champagne flute suggestively]

> I'm not really a fan of long paraphrases myself. I really balked at Lentilla's suggestion of 'reword every sentence'. What does that prove - that you can use a thesaurus?

Rewording every sentence is a real pain in the tookus, but it's guaranteed to remove any copyright issue. It's cheesy, but legal.

Hmph, still sounds rather dodgy to me. I suppose that as long as you cite it properly then your assessors can decide if it actually qualifies as work or not. Copyright's not really the issue in a thesis.

By the way, interesting word I just spotted: balletomania - passionate enthusiasm for ballet. That just tickles me for some reason.

for tomorrow, j'au-æmne. Have a wonderful time and enjoy yourself!

Would it be worth creating a conversation for gaming gossip?

Off to bed now.

B

> Copyright's not really the issue in a thesis.

Too true.

If I wanted to use the material, I would quote and attribute it. If I wanted to integrate the ideas, I'd put it in my own words. But that's just me! Good thing I don't have to write a thesis...

Balletomania, huh? [Looks around to see the 'a' disappearing into Roget's maw.] I've always liked 'clinophobia' - the fear of beds.

Hang on, if you have read something for yourself, and digested it then I would think that it would be almost instictive to parapharse it. If you are quoting it directly then it suggests that you are citing that research because 'you ourght to cite Bloggs and Bloods, it's a seminal work in the field', not because *you* have read it and come to a conculsion about it.

I have to admit I would expect a PhD student to be fully versed with all the other relevant literature that was written in the field. I would expect them to have read it and thought about it and formed their own opinions.

God I miss academia. I want to write an essay again.